Son Heung-min to play his 100th A match against Chile

Son Heung-min, the captain of the South Korean national football team, will join the Century Club, which refers to footballers who have played over 100 A matches.

The South Korean national football team will have a warm-up match against Chile in Daejeon World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. on Monday. This will be Son’s 100th A match, following his 99th game against Brazil on Thursday. According to the Korea Football Association, a total of 15 South Korean players has belong to the club, including former coach of the national team Cha Bum-kun and head coach of Ulsan Hyundai Hong Myung-bo. Son will be the 16th South Korean member of the club.

Son scored 31 goals in 99 A matches that he played in. It is the sixth-highest figure among South Korean footballers, following Cha with 58 goals, the manager of the South Korean national under-23 football team Hwang Sun-hong with 50 goals, former vice-president of the Incheon United FC Park Lee-chun with 36 goals, former vice-president of the Korea Football Association Kim Jae-han with 33 goals, and Lee Dong-gook with 33 goals. Son had his first A match against Syria in 2010 and had his A-match debut goal in a game of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup against India, which was his third A match.

According to the Korea Football Association, Son has played six World Cup matches, 12 Asian Cup matches and 35 preliminary matches for World Cup and Asian Cup, and 46 warm-up matches. Among them, Son was a starter for 82 games, played full time for 51 games, and played for 30 games as the captain of the national team. The South Korean national team had 50 wins, 17 ties, and 32 losses for matches in which Son played. "The match against Brazil was disappointing but we will show better performance against Chile," said Son.


Jae-Yeong Yoo elegant@donga.com